After a two-and-a-half-year break, Sofar Sounds, the international music format we established in Linz in 2018 restarted in Linz on September 30. With many new team members and minimal changes to the concept. What remains unchanged is the passion for music and the goal of promoting young local, national and international, also unknown singer/songwriters and bands.
After I founded/initiated Sofar (Songs from a room) 2017 in the Austrian city Linz our team decided to re-start the project to bring back a special kind of music to the people. The project is my biggest volunteer engagement. With a team of 13-17 volunteers, we bring one’s a month a special music show to Linz with a lot of unseen complexity.
The complexity of Sofar Sounds Linz
- Volunteers: It is always easy to consume but creating something like secret concerts is more time-consuming and complex than most of the people think. Therefore I really thankful to each person who loves the concept and supports us with their engagement like the booker, location scout, moderator, social media manager, photo team, audio engineers, bar team, and our video team. We always looking for help, especially in the video and social media team. Please reach out to us if you want to support us as volunteer or in other ways.
- Musicians: Back in 2017 we had only one person who took care of the artist book. That was a bit to much work because you have to deal with many things like:
- AKM application for each show (Collecting society representing the rights of public performance, broadcasting rights and rights of availability of authors, composers, and publishers of musical works in Austria.)
- Rights Artist setup: For each show, you have to find three different singer/songwriter or bands who wants to perform in Linz.
- Official event registration at the mayor of Linz to be listed at an event so that police know what’s going on in the city
- Artist release form
- Locations: The concept is designed in the way that Sofar Linz changes each show venue. Over time we found really cool locations but it is always complex to find a private, public organization or business that wants to host a concert with up to 140 people.
Return of Sofar to Linz
With the outbreak of the corona pandemic, Sofar Sounds Linz took a kind of forced break after the February 2020 show. Until then, a total of 24 concerts took place at unusual locations in Linz. Demand was high right from the start – the Linz team recorded around 120 applications per event. With our first show in 2022 we broke the number of applications for the show with over 200.
Host your Sofar Sounds Linz show at your unique venue!
With OK-Deck as the first location, we received great feedback from the audience. We had around 140 people at the show. Our artists came from around the globe with Marley Wildthing from Prague, Cecilla (Linz) and Afterthought (San Francisco) with Blechsalat we had a talented, diverse show line-up. Our Team will give its best to create intimate moments in the future and because of Corona we will choose larger but still quite unusual locations instead of charming living rooms to ensure enough space for the guests. If you have a great location in Linz please get in touch with us.
As before, the applicant principle applies to hosts and musicians as well as guests. The music acts remain secret until the show and the venue is also announced only a few days beforehand.
The second surprise Sofar Sounds Linz concert is scheduled to take place on November 25, followed by a show on December 16. Registrations/applications for tickets are now open at www.sofarsounds.com/linz – first come first serve.
Interested artists and hosts should contact linz@sofarcurators.com by mail.